>> Friday, March 2, 2012

>> Friday, February 17, 2012

Today it was. BEAUTIFUL out.

I can't decide if a gorgeous day in mid-February is a gift or a cruel joke. I know that we still have potentially months of wintry weather, but day-yam today felt like spring. This afternoon the girls and I went for a walk, and we brought out sidewalk chalk, and we took the bikes out for a spin...

Then I realized that this warmth? This delicious warmth that had the neighbor walking her dog in shorts and a t-shirt? It was like 35 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny. The neighbor was a bit optimistic, I think. We were out in our spring jackets and no gloves but still had on hats. But it was so so so nice.

"Look, my shadow is dancing!"

Before we came outside, Violet made sure everyone was wearing their "cool dudes".

>> Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The girls and I had a busy morning.

First up- a doctor appt that I stupidly scheduled for 9:00am. Most days I am just crawling out of bed at 9. (I know, I know. It's just that the baby will usually remain content in her room until then, and the big one usually crawls into our bed at like 8ish and occupies herself with Netflix or Cupcakes! or a downward spiral of random Youtube inappropriateness that always begins to go bad when she clicks on anything Dora-related on my iPhone until I tell her the phone needs a nap and then I begin parenting for the day. I just can't resist the way she asks "Oh, Mama? Do you think you would never mind if I play with your phone?") (Also not on days I run. On days I run the alarm starts going off at 7:15 and I can typically mange to drag myself outside by 7:55.)

But I digress. 9am appt. Which I was very nearly on time for. So close. We finished up there by like 9:30 but we were all dressed and had a full diaper bag packed and I sure as heck wasn't heading home already. Baby's day out! Huzzah!

I had heard on City and Baby's blog about this new café that opened up fairly recently, and had been wanting to check it out. So we headed to the north side of the river (according to their Facebook account, they're actually considered to be in the central-west part of the city) to check out Café Tiramisu.

Love it.

The thing that drew me there was the play room I had heard mention of. It sounded much less crazy than our usual haunts, and I was right. It was actually relaxing. They had this little room off to the side with some blocks, books, a couple random toys, and OH MAMA LOOK BIG IPHONES. (Well, you're close, kid. They're called iPads.) Not a crazy runaround pandemonium center like Cafe O'Play, but my girls were more than engaged. I parked them in there and showed them how to turn on the iPads and then I went outside the room and sat down with a cafe mocha and a scone and ACTUALLY DRANK MY COFFEE WHILE IT WAS STILL HOT. Which is kind of a big deal. I really liked how I was able to sit outside of the kid's room and still monitor the munchkins through a big plate glass window. We'll definitely be going back.

I also caved and let them get pre-lunch cupcakes. It's Valentine's Day! That's a good enough reason, right? Shut up. It is.

My sincerest apologies to the staff of Cafe Tiramisu for the obscene amount of cupcake crumbs my children mashed into your sofa. I really did try to clean up the best I could. Thanks for a lovely morning.

Then we went and met Nate for lunch. Is it a Valentine's Day tradition yet if we have had a Japanese food lunchdate two years in a row? Or do we need a third year to really call it a tradition?

And then we came home. And there was napping throughout the land. Or at the very least, quiet containment while Mama edited a couple images and wrote up a blog post.

Tonight our big Valentine's Day dinner will be... leftovers. Romantic, right? But by God, there will be ice cream for dessert.

>> Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Glarghhhhhhh. It's been two days of hibernation, but today we had to go out. Had a doctor appointment this morning, so there was no choice. We were going out.

Of course it took us like 4 times as long to get out the door. I'd boot, hat, mitten, coat, and scarf one child, then turn to the other. The first took this opportunity to de-scarf, de-hat, de-boot, so I'd have to turn again and start over... you get the idea. Once I finally got everyone ready, we get outside, we buckle in, I go to start the car annnnd... welll. It started, but once I pulled my foot off the clutch it stalled out. Multiple times. Apparently cars don't appreciate temperatures of -40 any more than I do.

Finally made it to doctor, appointment done, but then it was time to go and we had to do the whole hat/coat/boot/mitten routine all over again. GAHHHHHHH.

Since we were out, we also decided to meet some friends at the mall for lunch. Of course, once I got there I found that I had left my wallet at home and had no money with which to buy lunch. Luckily a friend spotted me $20, which was good because at this point it was nearly 12:00 and I had eaten exactly nothing yet all day long. Lunch acquired, tray carried one-handed allll the way across a crowded food court, baby on opposite hip. I made it all the way to our table before I spilled the entire contents of my large iced tea onto my tray, table, seat, self, and floor.

Sigh.

But all in all, a nice morning. It was great to get out of my prison home sweet home and see some actual grown-up people and have at least half-conversations between running to stop 1-yr-olds from throwing themselves from the tops of playground structures and 3-yr-olds from running away to go look at whatever it is that grabs the interest of 3-yr-olds. Which is anything and everything.

I even got smoothies from Orange Julius for the girls on our way out of the mall. And don't worry. When Violet dumped the entire contents of hers out the front of the stroller and onto the floor- I told the mall cleanup guy. He didn't seem to mind. Nor was he surprised.

>> Monday, January 16, 2012

It is so cold out.

See? Not making it up. That's really freaking cold. And in case you're trying to do the Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion? Don't bother. Because -40 is minus 40 is -40. That's where the scales intersect. It's cold.

So today we stayed in. We baked.

And before you start thinking my blog is turning into one of those shiny ones... Here's the part I hadn't yet taken out of the oven.

Yeah... That cranberry bread is a little... mauled. It really did not look done yet. But apparently it was more than done on the bottom, because I had to yank it out of the pan and it did not turn out well.

Anyways. It still tastes fantastic. Lemon Cranberry Bread with a lemon glaze.... so good. It's cake, posing as bread. But yeah, I'm hoping next time I don't let it get so overdone.

>> Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Today we all napped. And it was glorious. And when we all woke up at 5pm and I really just wanted to finish my book, I let them sit on the kitchen counter and eat cookies and milk (a mere hour before dinner) and shhhh don't tell Nate.

Not very wordy today. Working on getting my 365project going. Setting up a new blog for it. Running into your regular issues- I don't remember who hosts my website, I can't remember any of my passwords, I get error messages of which I understand nothing beyond the "you have an error" bit of it... But I shall persevere! I will add a photo-a-day blog to my every growing list of things to try and keep up with!

>> Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Today we tried some new tactics. Namely, a sticker chart for good behavior. How did it go? Well, like pretty much anything else goes with a 3-yr-old. It was CRAZY EXCITING for like a half hour, she was "using good listening" and "being kind to sister" and she even let me "brush hair with no whining" and then it just ceased to motivate her. Apparently we do not have stickers cool enough to warrant "stay[ing] in room during quiet time".

But, we painted this morning. And that was fun.

Not entirely sold on the finger paint just yet.

She realized she looked like the "Wicked Witch of the 'Est" and began cackling.

"Eh, heh heh heh"

Blah, blah, paint on walls/floor/pants/hair/my shirt/the carpet/edge of tub followed by a pre-lunch bath. You know the tune.
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